Hospital design features that optimise pandemic response

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed forever how we plan, respond to, and deliver health care. The lived experience of hospital infrastructure design to support a pandemic is currently not well described in the literature. Much of what is known covers generic elements of hospital design and/or assumptions about in-built disaster design features. The Central Adelaide Local Health Network became a key stakeholder in South Australia’s response when the Royal Adelaide Hospital (RAH) became the designated receiving hospital for the state. Preparation for a pandemic commenced back in 2007 when a new build for the RAH was announced. Several disaster response infrastructure design features were incorporated into the RAH design specifications to provide a resilient facility that could respond to any type of disaster event while continuing to provide core clinical services. Key pandemic design elements included patient room design, pandemic air handling capability, and a 7-step scalability function. We describe these key elements based on real-time experience along with the key lessons learnt as the pandemic response evolved with the aim of guiding future hospital building design to not only support the more frequent time-limited disasters but, more specifically, a pandemic response. The RAH capitalised on its key design features to support its pandemic response and contributed to the overall success of South Australia’s pandemic response.